In seventeen editions of the Australian event, the race winner has gone on to secure the world title

With the first free practice session, set to take place this evening at 23:45 CET, the curtain goes up on the Superbike World championship. Here are the facts and figures regarding the upcoming round, which takes place for the tenth consecutive time at Phillip Island.

324.6 km/h – The highest speed recorded at the Australian track, by Max Biaggi on the Aprilia RSV4 in 2012.

178 km/h – In 2017 Jonathan Rea recorded the highest average speed during Superpole, also setting a new lap record, in 1’29’’573.

53 – Phillip Island is the track that has hosted the most Superbike races, the first back in 1990.

23 – The number of times Australian riders have won their home race, the last double was achieved by Troy Bayliss in 2008.

17 – In 17 seasons out of 30, the Phillip Island race winner has gone on to win the title.

13– The last rider to win at Phillip Island from 13th on the grid was Noriyuki Haga.

10 – For the tenth year in a row, Phillip Island hosts the opening WorldSBK round.

6- British riders have won the last six races (five for Rea and one for Haslam) in Australia, equaling the number consecutive wins by any one country at Phillip Island.

5 – Since the championship began, the current world champ has always closed the Australian round inside the top five

0.004 seconds – The closest Superbike race finish: Phillip Island, in race 1 in 2010, when Leon Haslam was able to beat Michel Fabrizio by just 4 thousandths of a second.

0 seconds – The last six races held at Phillip Island have all been extremely close, less than a second separating the winner from the runer-up. The last time a winner was able to close with more than a one second advantage was in 2014, when Eugene Laverty beat Marco Melandri by 2.959 seconds